Collectors unofficially refer to this incarnation of the My Little Pony franchise as "G4", which began with the airing of the cartoon series My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic developed by Lauren Faust, debuting in October of 2010. The series became a surprise smash hit, gaining a huge Periphery Demographic online fandom. At its core Friendship is Magic is something of an Adaptation Distillation for the previous cartoons. It has the fantasy & adventure elements of "G1", Slice of Life stories started by Tales, and much of the cast are re-imagined "G3" ponies.

Other

Tropes that apply to My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic in general

Animesque: Mix the previous generations with Anime Tropes and Moe in a blender, and bake it in an oven made of the Internet.

Broad Strokes: Because the show, and the various Expanded Universe material are made by different people, the continuity between each of them takes an "only if we feel like it" approach. Thus they will often ignore each other, or if they don't, retcon each other to make their stories work.

Constructed World: Equestria is clearly a part of its own world that has nothing to do with our own with its own magical elements, pantheon, and mechanics that differ from ours. It is far more complex then anything seen in previous My Little Pony shows, or most girl-oriented media for that matter.

Crapsaccharine World. On the surface Equestria is a very colorful place with very benovolent inhabitants. However it's also full of dangerous wildlife, hostile civilizations, evil magic, power-hungry cults and individuals, and lots of Sealed Evil in a Can.

Human-Focused Adaptation: The Equestria Girls sub-franchise. Its about colorful human versions of ponies going to high school in an Alternate Universe. The main Friendship is Magic universe lacks humans though, like "G2" & "G3" before it.

Merchandise-Driven: However, unlike the previous toy lines, which had the toys made first and had the shows based on the toys (or in the case of "G2", had no show at all), this incarnation has the toys based on the content of the show.

The Multiverse: There's actually a few different "alternate worlds" that have been explored in the franchise thus far, usually accessed with a magic mirror. The worlds given promience so far include:

Equestria Prime: The mane setting of Friendship is Magic and the IDW comics.

Palette Swap: Not only do the current (as of 2011) line of figurines resemble more toward pre-FiM versions, but various background characters (sometimes not even existing in the series) are palette swaps of the main characters, if their packaging graphic is anything to go by. For instance, look up Dewdrop Dazzlenote of Twilight Sparkle, Feathermaynote of Rainbow Dash, Flitterheartnote of Fluttershy, Lulu Lucknote of Rarity, Plumsweetnote of Pinkie Pie, Snowcatchernote of Rarity also, Twinkleshinenote of rarity yet again if you're already familiar with the main Friendship is Magic cast. Some other examples show attempt to differentiate however, such as "Cupcake" being a wingless version of Fluttershy, or "Sunny Daze" being a non-unicorn Sweetie Belle, or even "Minty" as an Applejack mold sans the hat.

The "blind bag" minifigures even went so far as to have Fluttershy - one of the Mane Six! - as a Pallete Swap of Rainbow Dash. (Which is somewhat amusing after the events of the third season episode "Magic Duel"...) She finally got her own unique mold in a set released in mid-2013. Several other characters who've appeared on the show, though, are still recolors at the blindbag scale, such as Cheerileenote also of Pinkie Pie, Trixie Lulamoonnote of Rarity in wave 4, then of Twilight Sparkle in later issues, and Lyra Heartstringsnote Twilight again.

The Power of Hate: Coming with friendship and love being big themes in the franchise, the champions for harmony frequently come into conflict with the forces of chaos, despair, and selfishness.

The Power of Friendship: It ain't called Friendship is Magic for nothing. Not only are most problems solved when the ponies work together, friendship is literally described as the most powerful type of magic in the setting.

The Power of Love: Friendships close cousin is also a very powerful force in Equestria.

Universe Compendium: The Elements of Harmony: The Official Guidebook, covering up to the end of season 3.

Vile Villain, Saccharine Show: The more adventure-based parts of the franchise indulge in this heavily; it gives Kirby a run for its money. In fact one of the comic covers is the trope image.

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